Contract Awarded to Tear Down a Hillsborough Street Bridge and Realign its Intersection with Western Boulevard

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

RALEIGH — Motorists who
travel through the intersection of Western Boulevard, Hillsborough Street and
Jones Franklin Road in west Raleigh will see some major changes coming. Work
can start as early as Nov. 26 on a $2.7 million contract awarded by the N.C.
Department of Transportation to Fred Smith Co. of Raleigh to tear down the
eastbound Hillsborough Street bridge over westbound Western Boulevard and
eliminate the curved roadway at that location. Hillsborough Street will be
realigned and have a right-angle level-grade intersection with Western
Boulevard.

The 70-year-old bridge being demolished
is considered functionally obsolete and structurally deficient. It remains
safe, but was not built to current design standards and is unable to properly
handle the volume of traffic it now carries. It also requires continual maintenance
and needed to be replaced.

The plans also call for the addition of
sidewalks on all three roads.

The roadway portion of the project is
scheduled to be completed by Sept. 1, 2013. Vegetation work is expected to wrap
up by Feb. 28, 2014.

Since these are
busy commuter and commercial routes for the area, the contractor will not be
allowed to close lanes on either Western Boulevard or Hillsborough Street
during heavier traffic periods such as rush hour. Lane closures will also not
be allowed during nearby special events at the State Fairgrounds, PNC Arena and
Carter-Finley Stadium.

This
is one of 15 contracts totaling $73.6 million awarded by Conti in October for
highway and bridge projects across North Carolina. NCDOT awarded the contracts
to the lowest bidders, as required by state law. The bids received on the
projects awarded came in about 9.1 percent, or $7.4 million, below NCDOT
estimates.

Since
Gov. Bev Perdue took office in January of 2009, NCDOT has awarded 727 highway
contracts totaling $5 billion to ensure that all North Carolinians have access
to jobs and educational opportunities. Gov. Perdue continues to support
immediate jobs in the construction sector and the goal of ensuring that our
transportation network facilitates access to jobs, education and healthcare for
the future.

For more information about funding for
infrastructure improvements in North Carolina, as well as other NCDOT projects
and activities, visit www.ncdot.gov.